NEWTOWN — Newtown officials won't fire a police officer who hasn't returned to work since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School because of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Officer Thomas Bean will be allowed to remain on long-term disability, after Police Chief Michael Kehoe rescinded his recommendation to fire Bean on Dec. 5. The News-Times of Danbury reports (http://bit.ly/1bPOjS3 ) the town's Police Commission accepted Kehoe's withdrawal of the proposed firing and dropped the matter Tuesday.

Kehoe declined to comment.

Twenty first-graders and six adults were killed at the school on Dec. 14, 2012.

Bean gets half pay under the town's long-term disability benefits, but there's a dispute over how long he can receive those benefits. Town officials say two years, but the police union says 13 years until Bean's eligible for retirement.